Presidential Election of 1900: A Resource Guide

The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with the presidential election of 1900, including photographs, political cartoons, broadsides, newspaper articles, and sheet music. This guide compiles links to digital materials related to the presidential election of 1900 that are available throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, it provides links to external Web sites focusing on the 1900 election and a selected bibliography.

The Songs of America presentation allows you to explore American history as documented in the work of some of our country's greatest composers, poets, scholars, and performers. The collection includes the following sheet music from the 1900 presidential election

The Printed Ephemera collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history. While the broadside format represents the bulk of the collection, there are a significant number of leaflets and some pamphlets.

The papers of Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), public official, author, decorated veteran of the Spanish-American War, governor of New York, and president of the United States (1901-1909), consist of approximately 276,000 documents (roughly 461,000 images), most of which were digitized from 485 reels of previously reproduced microfilm.

William Jennings Bryan, gifted orator and three-time presidential candidate was born on March 19, 1860, in Salem, Illinois. In 1896, he defeated incumbent President Grover Cleveland to win the Democratic Party nomination for president. Just thirty-six, Bryan managed to attract the support of mainstream Democrats as well as third party Populists. The unpopularity of the incumbent Democratic Party combined with the well-filled war chest of Republican candidate William McKinley, catapulted McKinley into the White House. Still, Bryan's following was large enough to result in two additional runs for president. Bryan lost again to McKinley in 1900 and to William Howard Taft in 1908.

This HarpWeek Web site features political cartoons from Harper's Weekly, Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, Vanity Fair, Puck, Judge, and American Political Prints, 1766-1876: A Catalog of the Collections in the Library of Congress. It provides explanations of the historical context and images of each cartoon, campaign overviews, biographical sketches, a review of the era's major issues, and other valuable information related to the 1900 presidential election.

Selected Bibliography

Primary Sources

The Battle of 1900: An Official Hand-Book for Every American Citizen. Republican Issues by L. White Busbey, Prohibition Issues by Oliver W. Stewart, Democratic Issues by Willis J. Abbot, Populist Issues by Dr. Howard S. Taylor. Endorsed by the Parties. Chicago: Monarch Book Company 1900. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]